National ADA
Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) is an independent liberal political organization, founded in 1947 and dedicated to promoting individual liberty and economic justice. Our founders included Eleanor Roosevelt ( www.ervk.org), labor leader Walter Reuther (www.reuther.wayne.edu/), economist John Kenneth Galbraith, historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., theologian Ronald Niebuhr, and former Vice President Hubert Humphrey. ADA currently has 30,000 members. It operates out of Washington, DC and has some twenty chapters across the country.
The mission of ADA is to pledge itself to education, organization, and political action, in accordance with Constitutional democratic principles, on the local, state, and national levels. ADA is neither a political party nor a part of any political party; we welcome as members all who subscribe to progressive principles.
Working together with civil rights, civil liberties, labor unions, and other social and economic organizations who share our goals, we believe that we can move toward social progress and economic justice, civil rights at home, human rights abroad, and the promotion of the general welfare in a world at peace.
By its positions and actions ADA has established itself as the nation's preeminent liberal organization.
Our History
ADA led the fight for a strong civil rights plank in the 1948 Democratic Party platform.
We opposed of the Vietnam War and apartheid in South African.
We supported the impeachment of Richard Nixon.
We conduct and publish the annual Liberal Quotient, ranking members of Congress on a full spectrum of domestic and international policy issues.
We support
Social and economic justice
Protecting and promoting human and civil rights.
Universal health care coverage
Workers' rights, including increases in the minimum wage and a livable wage for working families.
Fair foreign trade agreements that contain labor and environmental safeguards.
Public education for a better future for our children and grandchildren.
Affirmative Action and an appreciation of our diversity.
Full protection for a woman's right to choose.
Drug education and rehabilitation instead of incarceration.
An end to a foreign policy based on military arms sales.
Electing progressive candidates to public office.
Public funding of elections and meaningful campaign finance reform.
Government that works for all the people, not just the privileged 20%.
We oppose
Privatization of public services like Social Security, Medicare and national parks.
Mega-corporate mergers and the downsizing of the American work force.
To Join ADA
To join the national Americans for Democratic Action go to ADA
Members of the national ADA who live on Long Island, New York, are members of the Long Island Americans for Democratic Action (LIADA).
